People who know me, are aware of the fact that I love doing fitness. I mostly visit group lessons in RPM, Body Pump and sometimes Body Balance.
Recently, I was asked to reflect on quality management in the fitness sector. And in doing so I combined two of my passions: quality and fitness.
The combination resulted in a chapter in the book by Middelkamp J. & Rutgers, H. (eds), Operational Excellence and Transformative Leadership. In the fitness and physical activity sector Europeactive/BlackboxPublishers pp. 202-223. My chapter was called Total quality management in fitness: On the way to operational excellence.
My last recommendation in the chapter to fitness sector leadership is that they should facilitate emergence of novelty. Where in the past innovations could be created by individuals such as professionals in the field of fitness and its entrepreneurs which could lead to new equipment, new concepts and new activities, nowadays the interaction of a diverse group of people is needed. This can also include the customer. That requires organising an innovation team from all stakeholders holding a creative dialogue and improvising with the purpose that a radical innovation might emerge. This requires collective mindfulness, enabling the process and being reflective and adaptive. Leadership (club owners and managers) in the European health, fitness and physical activity sector need to enable interaction to co-create innovation, together with the customer.